The Impact of Coaching

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Most anyone that has followed the Astros for the last few years will agree that their performance would be considered “below expectations” by many. There are plenty that would also say the team was worthless from opening day. (Though many of those will call any team that doesn’t maintain a .325 average with a 1.50 ERA a terrible team.) Personally I think we’ve had some teams with a lot more talent than the results have shown. Of course that talent has done pretty much jack squat which makes the talent seem even worse than it is.

In recent years, I believe the coaching staff has been the biggest issue. Sure, we haven’t had a team bursting with talent, but they should have been better than they’ve shown. At least as far as the W-L record goes. What we’ve seen though is player after player having 2-3 month slumps, career low years, etc. That isn’t a talent issue. That is a coaching issue.

Players don’t lose and regain talent on and off throughout the season. Outside of hidden or lingering health issues, the main reason that most players falter is because the opposing teams have found a fault that can be exploited. Once that fault is exploited over time, the player’s psyche falters and a downward spiral begins. Players that succeed in the majors overcome these faults in one way or another. With very few exceptions overcoming those faults requires quality coaching.

Obviously a large part of coaching is looking at video and pouring over scouting reports for hours on end. You don’t have to be some kind of amazing coach to determine what the problem is. What makes a good coach is knowing how to get a player to address and correct the problem that’s been found.

Very few coaches understand that you can’t use the same approach with every player. (Some know it, but can’t do anything about it.) Some players need gentle nudges, some need hand holding, and some need a 2×4 across the head. Good coaches know what works with each player and they know this because they take the time to really know the players they coach. To many of the coaches we’ve had lately knew only one way of doing things. Even if they did take the time to really get to know the players (which many didn’t), they couldn’t understand how or why one approach worked differently on each player.

I don’t believe that Brad Mills and his staff have that problem. They get it. Listening to the interviews of the coaches that FSN aired before this afternoon’s ST game really confirmed that. More importantly, you can tell that the players really believe in their coaches. It’s not so much what they are saying, it’s how they are saying it. The level of trust and respect between the coaches and players is higher than I’ve seen it in some time.

Will that keep this team respectable? I really don’t know. On paper, most will say this team is a last place team. I can’t argue with that. This year though I think we may have a variable that we haven’t had in some time: a quality coaching staff that has the players trust. That can translate into a lot of players having better that expected seasons which hopefully will translate into a better than expected year.